Notes from address given by Colin Whatmough on 5 October 2014 at Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre.
The following is based on the research of Al Gore, former Vice President of the USA in his recent book ‘The Assault on Reason’.
I invite you to ponder on one of the Unitarian Principles – the right of conscience and/or reasoning and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and within society at large.
Democracy begins with the premise that all are created equal and seeks to meet human needs – it values access and equity concepts.
By contrast, capitalism begins with the premise that competition will inevitably produce inequality – depending on differences in talent, industriousness and fortune – in its desire for profit.
These two systems have been the reigning philosophies in two different spheres of life. Most Western countries exist as the Democratic Capitalist style of government. The faultline that marked the boundary between capitalism and democracy generated tremors in Abraham Lincoln’s mind in 1864, quote, “But I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the Civil War, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow; the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
Al Gore makes the case that Abraham Lincoln’s suspicions have not proved groundless in the current American democratic Capitalist system especially with respect to the immense power exerted by modern multinational corporations and media outlets in the new globalised world of Earth Incorporated.
Blog
Neoplatonism, Then and Now
By Martin Horlacher
Earlier this year, I undertook a twelve-week philosophy course at Sydney Community College, in Rozelle. It was a fairly easy-going, yet exhaustive course that saw us cover everything from the pre-Socratic philosophers
of ancient Greece, right up to the musings of Jürgen Habermas in the twentieth century. We covered Descartes and Spinoza, Hegel and the Hindus, amongst others – the span of time we examined stretched over more than 2,500 years. Not at all bad for a course that only lasted three months.
Needless to say, I found a lot to think about in this time, and in the months since – not least of all, which philosophical traditions I find myself most agreeing with. In the months since the course concluded, I have worked out that I am much more a rationalist than an empiricist, certainly much more a virtue ethicist than a consequentialist, and almost certainly a monist, rather than a dualist (that is to say, in a metaphysical sense, I find myself agreeing more with Spinoza than Descartes, and notably more with Hinduism than Christianity in its view of God and the universe). Though, I must admit, I’m still not certain whether my own personal philosophy fits in more with the analytic or continental tradition – I’ll have to work that one out.
To read the complete talk on Neoplatonism click here.
IT ONLY ADDS
by Rev. Geoffrey R Usher
Sixty years ago, when I was a primary school child in Adelaide, life was very different in many ways from what it is now. We did not have television. We did have trams – but not today’s “light rail”. Space travel was still the stuff of science fiction.
We can marvel over the scientific and technological changes which have taken place within my life-time. We can be prompted into speculating on what the world will be like in another 50-60 years from now. We can wonder whether artificial intelligence will ever become a reality, or whether the space-docking stations will ever evolve into settled space colonies.
These are moot questions. Just as I, in my childhood all those years ago, could not know what changes I would see in my life-time, so I cannot know what will come in the remainder of my life-time, let alone the life-times of my children, or beyond.
One thing we can know, however. If religion is to serve us in those future days and years; if it is to live up to its promise of establishing wholeness in the self and in the world: then it needs to be prepared so that it may meet what scientific and technological developments are to be born.
We will need to work on it. It will not be easy. New human achievement and expanded knowledge have always been a struggle for religion.
No matter the age, no matter the advancement: much of religion has been threatened by scientific discovery and technological innovation to the point where they have been viewed as a menace – a threat – to both theology and morality. That view has rarely resulted in good.
Read the rest of this sermon here.
Worship: Transitive or Intransitive?
What is it that we do most as Unitarians? Within our denomination different congregations have different concerns, different emphases, different programmes and activities.
This sermon was delivered by Rev. Geoffrey R. Usher at the Spirit of Life service on Sunday 22 September 2013. The full text can be read here.
Fairy Tales and Their Inner Meanings
An Address to the Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship,
at Kirribilli, New South Wales, on 27 October 2013
by The Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones
The full address can be found here.